Leaders of Indonesia and Malaysia agree to establish a travel corridor

[ASEAN NOW Content Team]

 

Indonesia's and Malaysia's presidents announced that they have agreed to begin a travel corridor agreement (TCA) between the two nations, with the details to be worked out later.

President Joko Widodo said the opening of a travel corridor between Malaysia and Indonesia might help the two countries' post-pandemic economic recovery in a news conference after his meeting with Malaysian Prime Minister Ismail Sabri Yaakob on Wednesday (Nov 10).

 

"I applaud the 49 percent rise in trade from January to August 2021 compared to the same period last year," Mr Widodo remarked of the post-pandemic economic revival.

"We also decided to develop a travel corridor arrangement, which we would gradually open one by one to promote the economic revival," he continued.

Malaysia and Indonesia have agreed to begin opening their borders with the travel arrangement, according to Mr Ismail Sabri.

 

"And I've agreed with the president that the relevant ministers will investigate more so that we can begin to open the two countries."

"We can open our borders, and we may begin with this first framework with Kuala Lumpur - Jakarta - Kuala Lumpur, as well as Kuala Lumpur - Bali - Kuala Lumpur."

The Malaysian prime minister's office said in a second press release that people who have been "completely vaccinated, including officials, business travellers, and those travelling for medical and humanitarian reasons" would be given priority in the transit lane.

 

According to the release, the travel corridor will include mutual recognition of COVID-19 immunisation certificates as well as standard COVID-19 Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) screening test findings.

According to the announcement, Malaysia intends to open a traffic lane with Indonesia in early 2022.

There are currently no vaccine travel lanes (VTL) between Indonesia and other countries, but Malaysia launched its first VTL with Singapore on Monday.

Mr Ismail Sabri is now in Indonesia on a three-day visit at Mr Widodo's request.

 

It is his first official travel outside of the United States since taking office in August.
Both presidents used the meeting to discuss a variety of topics, including the situation on the Kalimantan-Sabah border, the Myanmar crisis, and difficulties in the South China Sea.